Ryan Pepiot played three years at Butler, pitching in 42 games. Photo courtesy of Butler Athletics.
OWEN PRISCOTT | STAFF REPORTER | opriscott@butler.edu
This upcoming MLB season, starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot will take the ball every fifth day for the Tampa Bay Rays, competing against the best hitters in the world. However, long before he faced big-league lineups and had 40,000 fans behind him, the right-hander learned how to handle pressure and compete as a weekend starter at Butler, where he became the highest-drafted player in program history.
Pepiot’s journey to “The Show” was never simple. Growing up in nearby Westfield, Pepiot was always playing all kinds of sports, not just baseball.
“My dad got my brother and I into sports when we were young, and he made us play every sport possible,” Pepiot said. “Football, basketball, baseball, soccer, you know, try it all. Then [I played] travel baseball from eight, nine years old all the way through high school, but [I also played] multiple sports through high school as well.”
In the fall, Pepiot took to the gridiron as a four-year varsity quarterback for Westfield High School. During his senior year, Pepiot earned an all-state honorable mention after passing for 2,734 yards and scoring 28 total touchdowns for the Shamrocks.
In the spring of Pepiot’s senior year, he dominated on the mound and in the batter’s box. At the plate, he hit for a .321 batting average with a home run and 14 RBIs. On the bump, he pitched to a masterful 1.90 ERA in 11 starts.
Pepiot — just the 387th-ranked right-handed pitcher in the class of 2016 — took his first visit to campus in the fall of his junior year before committing the following spring.
However, not long before Pepiot was set to arrive on campus, Butler’s head coach Steve Farley — who recruited and signed Pepiot — was let go after a disappointing 14-40 campaign. This meant Pepiot and the rest of his signed teammates would be thrust into a coaching staff that they did not know.
That uncertainty quickly turned into an opportunity.
When Dave Schrage arrived as Butler’s new head coach, he and pitching coach Ben Norton inherited an unfamiliar roster, but Pepiot immediately stood out.
“We wanted to develop some of the younger guys in our program, and he just had something different about him,” Schrage said. “When he took the mound, he was really competitive, and he had [more] composure for a first-year than in a lot of pitchers I’ve had in my career.”
Norton echoed the same notion, pointing out the young right-hander’s competitiveness off the field.
“He always wanted to be the best, even when playing ping pong in the locker room,” Norton said. “He was always competing and even trying to beat me whenever we were running.”
Competitiveness is exactly what you need to play in the Big East, a conference that drew Pepiot to Butler.
“The Big East Conference was pretty cool,” Pepiot said. “[You get to go] to major cities all over: you got Seton Hall in [New] Jersey, St John’s in New York City, Georgetown in D.C., Philly has Villanova, Creighton plays at TD AmeriTrade [Park], Xavier in Cincinnati. You get to go to some really cool spots.”
As a first-year, Pepiot did not have much time to ease into Division I baseball. He was thrust into Butler’s weekend rotation, and he faced experienced lineups across the Big East and beyond, learning firsthand what Pepiot described as a “man’s game.”
“You’re a little freshman, and you go out there and put your big boy pants on,” Pepiot said. “You’re 18 years old, going against a guy who’s 22 and has a full beard and can drink beers legally. You go into a man’s game now.”
Pepiot did not feel the pressure like a first-year pitcher normally would. Butler won six of his first seven career starts, as the right-hander pitched to a 2.70 ERA, seamlessly adjusting to the college game.
Pepiot finished his first season with some rough outings in conference play — ballooning his ERA above four — but the foundation was there, and Butler had an ace in the making.
As Pepiot moved into his sophomore season, the focus shifted from simply competing to finding consistency between starts. After showing flashes as a first-year, Pepiot pitched in the New England Collegiate Baseball League in the summer of 2017, furthering his experience at a young age.
With such a hefty workload early on, Butler’s staff had to learn to manage Pepiot in between starts.
“[We found out] he was probably overdoing it, not just on the field, [but] in the weight room,” Norton said. “We changed his running program a little bit to just conditioning because he’s a bigger body guy and didn’t want to make him overexert himself outside the starts. Then [we monitored] his bullpens in between starts as well, backing off the intensity and the volume of pitching in between.”
That refinement began to pay off in a big way during his sophomore season. Pepiot learned how to prepare his body, manage his workload and trust his secondary pitches, particularly a developing changeup that would later become a staple of his arsenal. His pitching coach noted his main off-speed offering as the difference maker.
“The thing that he developed his sophomore year was a changeup,” Norton said. “Fiddling around with some grips, and he still throws it today. It’s one of his main pitches in the big leagues to get guys out, but he would throw it to right-handed hitters. Scouts love that.”
This development meant Pepiot was no longer just competing for innings — he was anchoring Butler’s rotation. With experience, routine and confidence now in place, Pepiot entered 2018 as the Bulldogs’ most reliable arm, tasked with delivering results in the biggest moments.
Those moments arrived late in the season, as Butler fought to reach the Big East Tournament for the first time in program history. With the margin for error gone, Pepiot was given the ball against top-seeded — and Collegiate Baseball’s No.12 team in the country — St. John’s in a must-win series, a test that would help define both his season and Butler’s breakthrough.
Pepiot delivered in a big way. The sophomore supplied eight scoreless innings, allowing just six baserunners and striking out 10 Red Storm hitters in a 3-0 win, handing St. John’s one of its three conference losses that season.
That performance secured Butler a spot in its first Big East tournament in program history. Just six days after his outing against St. John’s, Schrage gave Pepiot the ball for Game 1 of the 2018 Big East tournament against Seton Hall.
“He was our leader,” Schrage said. “We were really surging with our team, and he was behind it.”
The rest is history. After surrendering a home run in the first inning, Pepiot buckled down and gave his team nearly eight innings with just that one run allowed. His performance was aided by his bullpen, as Josh Walker and Jack Pilcher shut down the Pirates the rest of the way. Butler went on to win the game in 13 innings, the first Big East tournament win in program history by a score of 2-1.
Pepiot reflects on the game as a surreal experience.
“It was just an absolutely crazy game,” Pepiot said. “We’re yelling at them, they’re yelling at us. It was just one of those games where you really just sit back and think about it [like], ‘Did that really just happen?’”
In 75 innings during his sophomore season, Pepiot eclipsed 100 strikeouts and pitched to a firm 2.62 ERA. His performance turned enough heads in college baseball to earn him a spot in the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), a prestigious MLB-affiliated summer league.
That is when Pepiot began to realize that pro-ball was in his future.
“Once I got to the Cape Cod league in the summer of 2018, [I was] seeing 20 to 30 scouts behind [the plate] every single game,” Pepiot said. “[It] was kind of daunting at first, but then you kind of get used to it, and you zone it out. It was pretty cool. That was the first time I was like, ‘Wow, there’s a real shot at [making it to MLB].’”
Pepiot faced some of the best competition college baseball had to offer when he was in Cape Cod. In his CCBL playoff start, the righty faced a lineup with four current big-league hitters: Cleveland Guardians outfielder Will Brennan, Minnesota Twins outfielder Matt Wallner, Twins second baseman Edouard Julien and a now-organizational teammate, Rays infielder Logan Davidson.
Despite the top-prospects and future MLB firepower, Pepiot pitched 5 ⅓ innings, allowing just two runs and striking out eight — including Wallner twice.
As his junior season approached, Pepiot knew the upcoming 2019 MLB Draft would be one where his name would be called. Still, the right-hander was working on a routine to maximize what could have been his last season with Butler.
“I think I got stronger and kind of grew into my body a little bit more,” Pepiot said. “In my third season in that conference, [I was] understanding how that schedule works. ‘If I’m throwing on Friday, I need to do this on Monday.’”
Experience and routine paid enormous dividends for Pepiot. His 2019 season with the Bulldogs stands alone, setting the single-season and career strikeout records for Butler — 126 and 306, respectively. Pepiot holds those records to this day, cementing him as the best arm to come through Butler’s doors.
Norton, who described first-year Pepiot as “effectively wild” at times — missing spots but still overpowering hitters — said his 2019 success is a testament to his development and competitiveness.
“He was going after [hitters] with his best stuff [every] day,” Norton said. “[He] would try to sometimes overdo it, but that’s [his] competitive side. [2019] was the time when he grew into a [pitcher] that could say, ‘I’m going to throw a changeup three times in a row and then come back to the fastball, and be in control.’”
Being in control helped Pepiot strike out double-digit batters in half of his 2019 starts, averaging a remarkable 14.5 strikeouts per nine innings pitched — ranked third in the NCAA. His college career came to a close after a 3-2 win over Georgetown, where he struck out 13 in 6 ⅔ innings, allowing just two runs.
With his junior season complete, Pepiot had done everything he could control. The swings-and-misses, consistency and durability had turned Butler’s ace into a legit big-league prospect, and attention quickly shifted to when — not if — his name would be called in the 2019 MLB Draft.
“It was stressful,” Pepiot said. “The first day, there [were a] few teams [that wanted me], and there [was] potential for the second round. So, I [thought] that maybe I’ll [be selected], but then the first day ended. Then I was like, ‘Okay, well, tomorrow’s the day.’”
That wait ended when Pepiot was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the third round, making him the highest-drafted player in Butler history. The call cashed in the years of development, from a multi-sport athlete at Westfield to a three-year weekend starter trusted in the program’s biggest moments.
“It’s a great feather in our caps,” Schrage said. “As far as developing kids and helping with recruiting, it showed high school kids and other kids that if they came into our program, they would get an opportunity to get drafted. It gave our program some great exposure.”
After quickly rising through the ranks in one of the deepest organizations in baseball, Pepiot made his Major League debut in Pittsburgh, pitching three scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Pepiot’s first big-league strikeout came on the same changeup that he worked to develop with Norton at Butler.
The right-hander appeared in 17 games — 10 starts — in two seasons with LA. He carried over the same swing-and-miss stuff from college, but showcased exceptional newfound control of his arsenal, walking just five batters in 42 innings during 2023.
In December 2023, Pepiot was part of one of the offseason’s most significant trades, being sent to the Rays as the main prize for star right-hander Tyler Glasnow. For Pepiot, the move represented a fresh opportunity — one with an organization renowned in baseball fandom for developing and maximizing pitching talent.
Now in Tampa Bay, Pepiot has carved his spot into the Rays’ rotation, even taking the ball on Opening Day in 2025. Expectations are higher than ever, and the margin for error is smaller, but the routine remains familiar.
Despite settling into life as a major league starter, Pepiot’s guiding values remain rooted in Indiana.
“[Being from a] small town, [you have] pride in where you’re from,” Pepiot said. “I feel like that’s influenced me and my wife [into] doing what we can in the city of Tampa and St. Pete, trying to be involved as much as you can. I try to [visit] every single charity or event that they have around town just to be out in the community and show support, and just kind of give back. Because where I’m from, it was a great place to grow up.”
Away from the diamond, Pepiot is an avid golfer and foodie, taking his clubs on every road trip and trying any food he and his wife can find.
In 2026, Pepiot will seek to steamroll towards his first MLB All-Star appearance, taking the ball every fifth day with the same routine that once defined his weekends in the Big East. The stages are bigger, and the hitters better, but his approach remains unchanged.
